Post-harvest damage to stored grain by rodents in village environments in Laos》.pdfVIP

International Biodeterioration Biodegradation 82 (2013) 104e109 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Biodeterioration Biodegradation journal homepage: www.else /locate/ibiod Post-harvest damage to stored grain by rodents in village environments in Laos Peter R. Brown a, *, Alex McWilliam b, Khamouane Khamphoukeo c a CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia b Wildlife Conservation Society, Lao People’s Democratic Republic c National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute, Vientiane, Lao People ’s Democratic Republic a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Rodents can cause significant damage to grain stores in developing countries, affecting food security and Received 4 October 2012 income of small-holder farmers. This study assessed a method to measure the losses caused by rodents to Accepted 20 December 2012 grain stores in rural upland areas of Laos, where black rats, Rattus rattus, are the main rodent pest species. Available online 9 April 2013 Known amounts of grain were put into metal bowls, placed inside farmer grain stores, and monitored every 2 wk after harvest for a dry and wet season rice crop. There were 2.5e3.0 droppings and 1.4e2.2 Keywords: hairs per 100-g sample. There was a positive relationship between the number of fecal droppings and Black rat hairs from within the bowls and from samples from the grain stores. Weight loss was 10.3%